Father Bouquerel’s text, written around 1912, fit perfectly the meter and length of Bach’s Prelude in C Major, so much so that I wondered why no one had already set the text to this piece! The final work on this piece- that of creating a harmonic version of Charles Gounod’s Ave Maria - which he also wrote to Bach’s Prelude in C - and combining it with Make Me a Channel of Thy Peace, was done just as Barak Obama was elected President of the United States of America. This multi-layered work, with it richness of origins and the eloquent message of peace, seemed somehow to meld with the spirit of hope that President Obama would bring not just to his country, but to the world, and so is dedicated to this man of great promise. Its first two performances were telling- the premiere by the Yellow Door Choir of Montreal under Eleanor Stubley in a special concert dedicated to literacy, and the second performance by Pennsylvania’s Cantate Carlisle under Cheryl Parsons in a visit to Quebec, both in June 2009.

The former performance is heard here.

Make Me a Channel of thy Peace

The Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi over Gounod’s Ave Maria and J.S. Bach’s Prelude in C